A new feature of the iPhone and iPad helps you protect your privacy - Approximate Location

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay 

Those of you who follow this blog will know that I recently wrote an article about how your Apple mobile device can track your location and allow you to see the places that you have been to recently - a feature called Significant Locations. (Here is that article for those who missed it.)

A new feature of the Privacy area of Settings, introduced in iOS/iPadOS 14, is the ability to only grant approximate location permission to apps, so that they can't store your precise location.

This one is particularly relevant to parents whose children use Apple mobile devices. It allows them to ensure that their child does not inadvertently give out location information to someone they shouldn't.

Learn where to find this setting and how to ensure it can't be changed.

What is Location Services

Location Services allows apps and websites (including Maps, Camera, Weather, and other apps) to determine and perhaps record the device’s location.

You can decide, in Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services, which apps are allowed to use/record the device's location.

A new Location Privacy Setting – Precise Location

​A new option has recently appeared in the Privacy settings for individual apps in the Location Service option - a setting that is designed to further protect our privacy.

The Precise Location option, available for each App that is listed in the Location Services area of Privacy, allows you to choose to only provide an approximate location to an app - instead of providing a Precise Location.

If you do decide to allow an app to use the device’s location, simply turn this setting off for the App.

The image on the right shows the screen I get when I choose
​Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services -> Camera.

How to ensure your child does to change the settings you establish here

Once you have gone through each app on your child's device and established the Location Services privacy settings that should apply, how do you stop them from coming back and changing these settings?

This is a feature of Screen Time on the device - where you can set restrictions on what settings you child can change.

We cover all the Parental Control features of Screen Time in a new edition guide from iTandCoffee. See below for details of how to purchase in paperback or digital format.

IMPORTANT: Members of the iTandCoffee Club who have Online or Premium membership can download this guide (and ANY other guide) for no cost using the applicable Coupon Code from the Members area. Learn more about the iTandCoffee Club here.

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Keeping Kids Safe on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch (2021 Edition)​​

​This 90-page guide easy-to-read guide is essential for parents of children who use iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches.

It looks at using all of the latest parental controls that are built into these powerful devices - Screen Time, Content and Privacy Restrictions, Guided Access, Password control, Location tracking and more. 

It also looks at setting up your child's device - iCloud setup, resolving issues with iCloud accounts in the family, setting up an iCloud Family and how to then control your child's Screen Time setup - remotely - from a parent's device.
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This edition, published in January 2021, covers all the latest features of iOS / iPadOS 14

Purchase in digital (PDF) or paperback format.

A Guide to Keeping kids safe on an iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch (2021 Edition) (Paperback)

A$37.50

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A Guide to Keeping kids safe on iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch (2021 Edition)  (PDF Download)

A$18.90

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